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Sunday, January 11, 2015

Review of "The Greatest Game"

One resolution I made that should be easy to keep is to reduce the number of unread books on my reading devices, especially those that I bought awhile ago and never got around to reading. This book was one of those so I opened it up again and once I did, I never wanted to put this one down. As a fan of hockey in the 1970's, this one brought back a flood of memories, including New Year's Eve when I watched this historic game. Here is my review of "The Greatest Game."

Title/Author:

“The
Greatest Game: The Montreal Canadiens, the Red Army and the Night That Saved
Hockey” by Todd Denault

Tags:

Ice hockey,
history, Canadiens, Soviet Union

Publish date:

October
26, 2010

Length:

346 pages

Rating:

5 of 5 stars
(outstanding)

Review:

On
December 31, 1975, an international hockey game took place between the Montreal
Canadiens and the Soviet Red Army team. These two teams were considered to be
among the best in their respective leagues and continents and the game was
highly anticipated by hockey fans all over the world. Not only because of the quality of the teams,
but because of many other factors. The Cold War was in full force. The entire nation of Canada was nervous
because the Soviet Union was now considered either equal to or superior in Canada’s
national game. The style of play in the
National Hockey League was becoming more physical and violent thanks to the Philadelphia
Flyers and their two consecutive Stanley Cup titles. This last point was of
great concern to many who believed the game was getting too violent, with less
emphasis on skill and more on fighting.

All of
these aspects and more are the setting for this terrific book by Todd
Denault. Not only does Denault write
about the game itself, almost shift for shift, but the game’s chapters are
preceded by well-researched and well-written chapters about the history of
hockey in the Soviet Union up to that game as well as how the Canadiens built
their team that would play in the game and the general state of the sport in
the 1970’s.

Like many
other books that are written about a specific game or series, this one has a
lot of information that is not directly related to the main topic. However, instead of these chapters being
merely filler, these passages have a connection to the historic game on New
Year’s Eve 1975 as this information gives the reader the feeling of why this
game took on such importance. For
example, there is a good section about Bobby Clarke, the star center of the
Flyers teams that became known as the “Broad Street Bullies” and won the
Stanley Cup in 1974 and 1975 as much by intimidation and violence as well as
skill. Those who felt hockey was
becoming too violent anticipated this game as being a showcase to prove that
this type of play is not needed to produce good hockey.

The best
written sections of the book, however, are those about the Soviet teams,
including the Red Army team. By the time
this game took place, goalie Vladislav Tretiak and forward Valeri Kharlamov
were well-known in Canada and the United States as well as Russia and Denault
treats them in the book as the stars that they were. The reader learns much
information about them and their teams as well.
The book also recalls how they were well-received by the citizens of
Canada. Tretiak was so good in the game
(no spoilers on the result if you do not know) that he received a standing ovation
from the Montreal fans. I was watching
that game as a 14 year old fan in Minnesota and I too was applauding his performance
by standing in front of the television set.

This book
is an excellent read for any hockey fan, but especially those who want to learn
more about the two best teams in their respective continents in the 1970s. The
reader won’t feel the “us vs. them” mentality while reading this as if seems
the Cold War was temporarily suspended for three hours. “The Greatest Game” lives up the game itself
and is a worthy book on the game and the sport of hockey at that time.

Pace of the book:

It wasn’t
a fast read as I carefully read the chapters on the history of Russian hockey
and some of the earlier games by this team as I was not familiar with that
history and wanted to learn more.

Do I recommend?

Hockey
fans, especially fans of the sport in the 1970’s, will love this book as it
covers so many important players, teams and the history of international hockey
played by Canadian and Russian teams during that time frame.